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Death Gives Way to Life Again

Approximately fifty three years after the end of The Hundred Year War

Avatar Aang woke up gasping for breath between a fit of coughs. His face was layered in a thin sheet of cold sweat. His bones ached, his stomach was knotted and he was overcome by nausea. He felt awful. He could distantly hear his wife call his name, as if she was several rooms away. Within seconds, however, she and a healer were at his side. It was then he noticed that he wasn't laying in their tall bed as usual, but someone had moved him to the Front Room of the house he built.

"What is it?" Katara asked the woman, her voice trembling with desperation. The healer, adorned in full native water tribe outfit, frowned. Aang knew what she was going to say, it was written all over her expression.

"Not good" came her monotone response. She had been through this many times.

The Avatar grinned. "Roku you bastard…" he joked, in a failed attempt to ease the growing tension. Katara was still frantic.

"Not good? Wha-What does that mean?" Aang could swear he saw tears brimming in her big blue eyes.

"It means the universe has chosen its next Avatar. It means the cycle is close to continuing. It means… well it means I'm almost over. The healer nodded to his wife.

"No… You're… You're dying?"

"Didn't expect me to live forever did you?" He smiled again. The healer's age-burdened face hardened.

"Avatar Aang, I am sorry. There's nothing I can do for you, though. I'm guessing you have six months, and you're condition'll only get worse from here. If there's anything I can do for your family-"

"Nonsense, nonsense. Thank you, but I've my family under control. I am the Avatar, aren't I?" He jibed. She forced a smile, nodded, and left the house. Katara was appalled as to how Aang could find humor in his situation.

"Don't worry" he tried to soothe her as he took her hand. She looked out the window, eyes lost in thought.

"My healing is stronger than hers. I could try something- anything. I could-"

"Katara." He took her hands and shook his hairless head. "It's going to be alright." His wife leaned on him and sobbed into his chest. Aang knew nothing would comfort her, her decided to save the whole 'I'll-be-reborn-right-after-I-die' for when he was about to.

"Hey, can you do something for me?"

"Wha-What?"

"You know how they bury the people of the Water Tribe- send their casket out of sea and let it float on to wherever?"

"Obviously…" he laughed at her sarcasm.

"I want you to do that with me." This surprised her. Before she could ask, he explained. "I don't know how the airbenders did it. The Tribunal kept it a secret, between the family and them. They never anticipated us all getting slaughtered, of course. I could ask an Air Nomad Avatar, but… I don't want to know."

"What about the fire or earth customs?"

"Burial or cremation? No and definitely no. And think of this way, after you die, maybe we'll sink in the same place and we can stay beside each other forever." This was too much for the water bender; she resumed her hysteric sobbing that didn't let up for hours.

Approximately fifty four years after The Hundred Year War

Aang grinned. Tonight was the night, he knew. His assumptions that he had nothing to fear rang with truth finally. In the same room where he was informed of his impending death, he was surrounded by the faces of everyone he loved, their faces etched in varying emotion. He was with his family, which didn't only extend to his descendants. To his right was his best friend in the entire world, his brother.

Looking up at the man's old scarred face, the Avatar couldn't help but re-trace his memory landing him more than half a century before. He was Zuko's arch nemesis-as Bumi had put it. They despised each other. His mind then flashed forward- Zuko was a friend. He played a crucial role in the defeat of his father, and the world was on it's way to peace. Following the birth of Republic City and their children, Team Avatar regained their closeness. From then on, Aang and Zuko were inseparable. Business meetings, child play dates, pro bending matches, everything. A few years down the road, Aang's son, Bumi and Zuko's daughter announced they were to marry. Aang and Zuko couldn't have been more ecstatic. The relationship between the Avatar and the Firelord had made a total one-eighty from the most previous- where in Sozin and Roku were childhood friends who died foes, they were once enemies who will die friends, seeing as Aang is dying.

The Avatar looked past his brother-in-law, to his blood family. He isn't surprised that his children aren't engulfed in their own sobs like most everyone else beside them are. Kya smiles at him, and shrugs away from her fire bender husband's arm around her shoulder, and approaches her father.

"Daddy…" she breathed. Though the man is sixty six years old.

"My baby girl." He grins before reciting "Kya. Middle child. Water bender. Wife of Mazi, firebender. Republic City's finest healer since her own mother. Mother of Lure and Zarina." She beamed. Her father had been drastically losing his memory.

"That's right daddy. You remembered." She whispered, voice breaking. Her eyes watered as her brothers stepped forth to comfort her. The Avatar gazed at his oldest son.

"My soldier." His son chuckled at the old nick name "Bumi. Oldest of my children. Non-bender, but special all the same. Husband of Azure, father of Iroh, with another on the way. Lieutenant of the United Forces. The ambassador of the four nations." His son gave him a satisfied sad smile, and stepped back. Which left the shortest and youngest of the three.

"Tenzin. My boy. My airbender. Youngest child. Councilman. Dating Pema. To you, Tenzin, I leave my burden. I leave my forgotten identity. You are the sole airbender now. Regardless of what old scarface may think-" his words were drowned out by calm laughter "you are the most important person in the world. The next Avatar must master airbending under your guidance and it is imperative the line of airbenders continue. So get busy." Everyone grinned. With an implied invitation, the visitors began to thin out. All but one. Aang's eyes then fell on his wife, who was hovering over him.

"I don't want you to leave me… "Was all she could manage.

"And I won't. I'm coming back you know, the spirits, of whoever runs this whole Avatar business makes sure the Avatar dies right before the next one is born. So you'll get yourself a waterbender. I'll go from being this old man to a baby girl." He smiled.

"How do you know it'll be a girl?" she asked, eyes sparking with interest.

"Avatar Koruk, told you 'bout him didn't I? He was the last waterbender in the cycle. The gender alternates. The next air and firebender Avatars will be girls, too."

This comforted her in some ways. Her husband's reincarnation would not only be born of her element, but would grow up under her mentoring. The girl would have someone to relate to. Katara. She could master not one but two Avatars. If she weren't looming over her dying husband, she'd be grinning from ear to ear. But she was. So she wasn't. He took her hand. It was her turn.

"Katara.." he sighed, stroking her hair. "My pride and joy. My first and only love. I remember when I asked you to go penguin sledding with me all those years ago. I remember opening my eyes for the first time in a hundred years and seeing your face. I remember kissing you on the day of Black Sun, and again when the war was over. I remember carving your betrothal necklace. And Bumi's birth. Then Kya's then Tenzin's. I haven't forgotten. Screw my memory loss, age can never take you away from me. I love you."

She was shaking, face buried in her hands. She attempted to say she loved him back with no avail, her throat was bone dry. So she decided to show him as an alternative. Her lips met his for what they knew would be the last time. The two had shared countless kisses in the past. Some, as Aang hurried out of their house headed to work, were rushed. Some, where they were watching the waves collide with the Island's cliff, were slow. This one was both and neither. It was long, but for Katara it was nowhere near long enough. For Aang it couldn't have been more perfect.

"I knew it." Aang sounded re assured. Katara heard the smile in his voice.

"Kn-Knew what?"

"I knew you would be my forever girl."

She expected herself to lose it. To cry and wail and carry on like she just did, but she did nothing but look into his eyes.

"I love you too."

The Avatar looked around the room. His children and their families had returned. He was glad to see the others had not.

Throughout his life, he had been through some incredibly rough patches. Getting over the heartbreaking isolation that had followed the murder of everyone he knew and loved took the cake. Yet in the darkness, there was light. He had his friends, his bison. A family that grew from two people. He fathered Republic City. He assisted the nation's restored coexistence. He saved the world.

He would die happy.

"And so the cycle continues…." Were the man's last words.

On different land, in a village of snow and ice, sat a dwelling filled with women gathered around a table inside, where another woman lay. She was covered in multiple blankets and had a wet cloth on her forehead. Less than half a minute before a large round bump had been protruding from her stomach. She was handed the tiny rabbit-skin-wrapped-child the healer had been cradling, and was told, with an adoring smile "It's a girl." The woman stood up and turned to her husband, the only man in the house. He kissed her temple and pulled them in close. The couple was now a family.

The newborn slowly opened her eyes, which quickly found her mother's. The woman felt a pang of pure joy run through her. She had chosen her first words to her baby carefully, but in that moment forgot them all. The greeting she whispered found her.

"Welcome to the world, Korra."